ONGWEDIVA – The persistent water woes at Amarika in the Omusati Region are expected to ease in June once the 53 km stretch of the Okatumba-Amarika water pipeline has been completed.
The project which started in 2014 has been on hold for some time, leaving the community to continue to drink salty water.
Potable water at Amarika is only supplied to the school by the education directorate through the Omusati Regional Council.
“The rest of the community does not want to organise itself to pay for the water hence the tank is only provided to the school,” said the councillor of Otamanzi Constituency, Johannes Iiyambo. According to Iiyambo the biggest tank which is ferried to the school costs about N$220.
Since the programme for water services was put on hold, the government through the Omusati Regional Council last year took over the project and is confident the project will be completed in two months. The reported halt of the project stems from differences in the implementation of the project with the initial donor. At the time the project was halted, the 53 km stretch of pipelines was already installed, however, they have since been removed as they are no longer durable for use and new pipelines were installed.
Iiyambo said the water pipeline will benefit his community greatly as there will be water points for the community to tap water as well as for their livestock.
“In the long run, the community will also further extend water to their homesteads,” said Iiyambo.
The chairperson of the Omusati Regional Council, Modestus Amutse, said that besides the water woes the council plans to complete the fencing of the farming unit in the same area.
As such a tender is planned to be advertised by the end of this month.
The fencing of the farming units have also been on hold due to the border fights between the Uukwambi and Ongandjera traditional authorities.
“As a council, we do not look at traditional authority borders, our focus is to ensure that our residents receive services hence we are going to look at how we will solve this issue amicably,” said Amutse. Amutse said a meeting has been scheduled with the two traditional authorities to see how best the affected communities could receive services irrespective of the borders which they find themselves in.
“We hope that there will be no further disagreements with the concerned traditional authorities so that we do not disadvantage the farmers,” Amutse said.
With the ongoing work and that which is scheduled to take place soon, Amutse has requested the contractors to treat their workers with dignity.
This, he said, includes paying workers on time and what has been agreed and to refrain from subjecting workers to harsh working conditions which are against the labour act.